The Ghost and the Hero
by CasperAndCrutches
Summary: When twin sisters, Katherine and Isabelle Shepard, are brought onto the Normandy. They had no idea the impact this would have upon their future. With the galaxy is in turmoil, what will become of them as the Reapers try to cull the galaxy? Early FemShep/Kaiden eventual FemShep/OC; and FemShep/GarrusVakarian
1. Dante's

**A/N Hi guys! This is Casper! I'm graduating in May as an engineer and my semester is exceptionally easy! So I have a lot of time and plan on trying to finish some of the stories I started and stopped while busy in the past few years! If this story gets noticed and people want me to finish it then I will move it to the top of my list!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

 **Edit: I put up these stories just to see if people were interested! Now that at least a few are I'm fixing the format of them! When I wrote them they weren't designed to go online! Thanks to all who read these before I fixed them!**

2168:

The night was cold, one of the coldest that Kat could remember. She was crouched quietly watching the entrance of Dante's, the most exclusive club in downtown Seattle. The only sound was Kat's even breathing and the occasional crunching underneath her boots when she shifted. She was currently waiting for Rane Crava, gang leader of the Templars. Kat was excited, this was currently her 3rd big time assignment for the Reds, a major player in the gang war in Seattle.

Katherine Shepard, or Kat, and her twin sister Isabelle, or Izzy, joined up with the Reds when they were 8. The Reds took pity on two starving girls wandering the city. Kat and Izzy haven't any clue who their parents are and now they don't care. The Reds are their family now. As soon as Kat and Izzy turned 10, the Reds started asking for them to do minor assignments, tailing people, pick pocketing and serving as distractions. But recently the assignments have been dealing with more prominent people such as the person that Kat was waiting for right now. Izzy was waiting on the backside of the club in case Rane went out the back. Kat was prepared to toss up a biotic throw in case Rane came out the front, this would serve as a message to Iz and Iz was prepared to do the same.

This was the one thing that Kat and Iz kept a secret from the Reds. Biotics were seen as strange and abnormal, essentially alien as it had only been 9 years since the First Contact War with the turians and since then an anti-alien wave swept the planet. Kat and Iz had been taught that the government couldn't help anyone and that's why the Reds were so important. The Reds were just forced to help the people where the government couldn't. As a result, Kat and Iz kept quiet about their biotics from everyone. Their powers first started appearing when they were 8 or so. Kat believes that this is due to the stress of being on the run for stealing and without a place to stay. This was right before the Reds took them in. At first their abilities were about the same. Minor barriers and weak throws. But quickly they discovered that if they didn't practice harnessing their abilities then sometimes they would accidentally do something. Biotics access their powers using something called physical mnemonics, basically certain hand or arm gestures does some sort of power. Not understanding this at first Kat and Iz would inadvertently cause something to happen. After the first few times they decided to practice their abilities, quickly they saw that while Iz had very little issues controlling her powers, they were infinitely less strong then Kat's. Kat had a lot of trouble learning to control her powers but as she progressed, her powers became much stronger and she picked up on a few new things as well.

Kat was brought out of her reminiscing by a group of people yelling as they came out of the bar. Straining her eyes to see if Rane was among them she almost missed Rane walking out the bar behind the large group. He was also wearing different clothes than before so he was obviously hiding something. Checking cautiously around her for people, and after being satisfied that there were none around, Kat threw up a biotic throw as her message to Iz and then she stood up and began to tail Rane. How he got to be the leader of the Templars is beyond Kat because he didn't stop to check for a tail once. Kat's assignment was to follow Rane and discover where he was to be tonight so the Reds could come in and destroy the Templars base once and for all. After about an hour Rane finally stopped at a warehouse only about 5 blocks away from the main hideout used by the Reds. When after a half an hour Rane still hadn't reappeared Kat quickly ran and informed everyone of where Rane was.

As everyone quickly prepared, Stuart, a higher up in the Reds, came and told Kat and Iz that they were to come as well. Within 15 minutes a majority of the Reds started making their way to where Rane was hiding. When they got there Kat and Iz were told to go and find Rane and to tail him should he make a run for it.

Everything was a blur after that. It was the first major fight that Kat and Iz had gotten into but they saw Rane and focused on just him, they quickly followed him into a back room only to have Iz grabbed by a man next to the door.

Rane turned around and said "I've known that you were following me since I left Dante's, I wanted you to lead the Reds here and as pretty as you and your sister are, I'm going to have to kill you both."

Rane grabbed Iz from the other man, held her in front of him and put a gun to her head. Quickly so no one would see Iz opened up her palm and winked at her sister. Seeing that Rina was using one of their emergency signals, Kat took a deep breath and let a minor shockwave out through her palm. The minor shockwave enabled Iz to drop to the ground and roll away just as Kat let out another shockwave that knocked Rane into a wall, took out every window in front of her and threw back every one of Rane's men in the room.

Iz quickly got up to calm Kat down because she was glowing blue and when Kat turned around they saw a majority of the Reds' members at the warehouse staring at them. Kat looked at Iz quickly before turning to their audience and saying "we can explain."


	2. Welcome to the Alliance

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

"I just didn't want to lose you guys. We had finally found a home and I didn't want to ruin that for us" Kat finished explaining. But upon seeing a bunch of blank faces, Kat sighed and said "I guess we'll just grab our stuff and go."

"Wait!"

"What is it Stuart?"

"We were just surprised that's all! Don't go!"

After a pause Kat looked at them and said "So now what?"

"Well I'm assuming you don't have an amp am I correct?"

"Yes but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You guys are family, and we do anything for our family. We happen to know some people who can get you an amp if you'd like."

Kat looked at then incredulously saying "Seriously?"

Stuart just grinned and said "Of course, let's go. We can probably get this done tomorrow."

\- 2 Months Later -

"Alright Kat, you've been working minor cases for us up til now. It's time you step up into a bigger role." Stuart nonchalantly told Kat one morning.

"Stepped up? What do you mean?" Kat questioned.

"We want you to be the enforcer."

"What?! But generally the enforcer ends up killing people. I don't want to do that!"

"I don't care. We got you that amp, you owe us. Besides you wouldn't want anything to happen for your sister now would you?"

Kat just glared at Stuart before responding "Fine, but I have a few conditions. Firstly, my sister never has to work a job again and she still has free reign of the compound, she won't be a prisoner. We'll also still receive her cut as if she were. Currently we get 10% together. I want that upped to 15%. Lastly, we get our own private room."

Stuart just grinned before replying "You have a deal."

"YOU WHAT?!" Iz exclaimed.

"I did what I had to, there's no point in both of us going down. It's me they want." Kat calmly explained.

"Then let's just go."

"And go where? Besides…"

"You have a plan, you always do." Iz interrupted with a sigh.

Kat continued on as if Iz hadn't interrupted her. "Well the way I look at it, the Reds haven't been completely truthful with us. Who's to say that they haven't lied about some other things?"

Iz pauses her pacing around the park where they were currently holding their conversation. "Get to the point Kat."

Grinning Kat retorts, "Always so impatient! Anyways. Let's check out the Alliance Military. If everything checks out, we join up as soon as we turn 18."

Thinking it over Iz resumes her pacing before stopping and remarking. "Okay and honestly it can't be as bad as this."

"Exactly! And now we have time, space and money to prepare. You can always practice with the weapons. You've always had a knack for that. We can practice our biotics together. Make it so that our past won't stop them from letting us sign up.."

Iz thinks it all over before agreeing and then adding

"Just 3.5 more years right? Let's do this."

\- 3.5 Years Later -

"Ready Iz?"

"Ready Kat."

Taking deep breaths, both girls walked into the Alliance Recruiting Office. Walking up to the nearest recruiter, Kat went to speak but the recruiter beat her to it.

"Good Morning, I assume you're here to enlist."

"Yes sir." Iz replied before continuing. "You see sir, we are orphans and we were taken in by a bad crowd and were hoping that we could try and get away as soon as possible."

Nodding his head understandingly the recruiter replied. "Well, if you guys have any special talents I might be able to get you out in a couple of days. Say technical experience, weapons experience, etc."

Kat quickly interjected, "Well my sister's worked with weapons before and she always picks them up really quickly!"

Iz then added "And Kat here's really great with electronics and tech. I've never seen someone hack into… I mean. Yeah." Iz finished sheepishly, finishing quickly after Kat glared at her. Then with a quick glance at Iz, Kat looked back at the recruiter adding "We're both also biotics."

At the last sentence, the recruiter who had been typing away stopped and looked at them. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, and we know how to use and control them if that helps.." Iz answered.

"Absolutely, I'll get your applications processed right away! And as a piece of advice, go for specialty training."

"Thank you so much." Kat responded.

"Of course. It's my pleasure." The recruiter said while standing to shake their hands before adding.

"Welcome to the Alliance Military."


	3. Reunion

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

The Airport was pretty quiet for a Thursday night so when a large squeal sounded throughout the docking bay, everyone turned and saw an average height curvy red head running around people before launching herself at a tall red headed woman with an Amazonian build. Seeing the Alliance issued backpacks both women carried and the facial similarities between the women, people just smiled before turning away.

"Good God Kat, are you trying to kill me?" Iz mocked feigning injury.

"Ohh please, you're just as happy to see me! After all I am your favorite sister." Kat retorted.

"Please you're my only sister. Anyways, you hungry?" Iz replied changing the subject.

"Aren't I always?"

"Then let's grab some food and catch up before we have to report in."

"Can you believe we're here? I mean, almost a year ago we were stuck with the Reds." Kat said looking at Iz eat her food.

"God no! I mean here we are. Private 1st classes out of technical schools due to outstanding performance." Iz replied.

"Speaking of, congratulations on finalizing vanguard class. I hear my baby sister broke all the weapons records and kicked major ass with her biotics." Kat said with a grin.

Iz scoffed "Oh please, you're only older than me by 3 minutes! And it was only 4 records. What about you? Not only most powerful biotic out of all of the classes but set the new high score on the Alliance Technical Examination. I have the best of the sentinel class sitting right next to me."

"Ahh, the ATE wasn't that bad! But.. we are pretty impressive aren't we?" Kat said with a smirk.

"Damn right we are!" Iz enthusiastically replied before quickly sobering up. "We should probably get going. New assignments and all."

With a sigh, Kat nodded her head before standing up and saying "Alright. But that Elysium trip we were planning on taking? Just the two of us? It's going to happen. Promise?"

"Promise."


	4. Elysium

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

 **Edit: I put up these stories just to see if people were interested! Now that at least a few are I'm fixing the format of them! When I wrote them they weren't designed to go online! Thanks to all who read these before I fixed them!**

"Kat! I didn't think that I'd hear from you! When I got your message that said to call you, I thought that it was a joke! You said you didn't know when you'd be back in comm range!" Iz exclaimed!

"Yeah change of plans. The Kilimanjaro needs some repairs. Are you free the 3rd week in December?"

"Yeah, the Madrid is still undergoing repairs. Why?"

"Don't make any plans and pass up leave. I think it's time for us to do our Elysium vacation." Kat said with a grin.

Wide eyed Iz enthusiastically replies "Seriously? I can't believe it! Yes!" Then she added with a smirk. "It's about damn time!"

"I know! I know! So just make sure that you're in the airport on the 22nd. I'll make the hotel arrangements."

"Done.. Hey I have to go. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye! Ohh and Iz? You better be ready."

"Don't worry, I will be."

\- December 26th -

"This has been great. I'm so glad that we got to do this" Kat said with a content sigh as she crawled into the Queen sized bed she was sharing with her sister.

"Me too." Iz sleepily said already lying in bed. "So tomorrow we're going to…"

But Kat cut her off, "Wait, I'm getting a vid call."

"It's got to be Alliance right? No one else is going to call this late. Unless it's a booty call.." Iz remarked with a grin.

"Very funny." Kat dryly replied. "Wait. It's Commander Anderson!"

"You mean Lt. Commander Anderson, the N7?!" replied a shocked Iz.

"Yeah wait one minute I need to answer this." Kat tells Iz as she answers the call.

"Sir."

"I apologize for the lateness of this call and I know that you're on leave but you're needed back in the fleet."

"Of course sir, but if you don't mind me asking sir. Where to and why? If it was the Kilimanjaro, I would've been notified by someone less important." Kat asked.

Anderson gave her an approving nod as he replied. "Correct. It's with the Beijing. They need someone with your unique skill sets."

Confused Kat replied "The Beijing usually only carries soldier and infiltrator class marines. What are they doing that would require a sentinel class marine?"

"The why cannot be discussed over an unsecure network but they want to have one just in case and you're the best the Alliance has. The Beijing will be at Elysium tomorrow to pick you up. Be in docking bay 75 at 0500 hours." Anderson ordered.

"Aye Aye Commander."

"Oh and one last thing Chief. Tell your sister that you'll most likely be out of comm range for a couple of weeks or so. I know she's there with you." Anderson kindly remarked.

"Yes sir. And thank you sir." Kat thanked him.

With a quick nod and an "Anderson out" the call was over. Kat looked over at her sister and asked "Did you hear everything?"

When Iz nodded, Kat got out of bed and quickly put together her bags.  
"So what time are we getting up?" Iz asked as she moved to reset the alarm.  
"Me, not we. This is still your vacation. You don't need to get up Iz." Kat replied without once pausing in packing her bags.  
"Bullshit, we're in this together. This is serious. That kind of rank and secrecy can only mean danger. Like hell I'm letting you leave without me there."  
Kat continued to walk around the room ensuring that she had everything packed and ready to go. Only then did she look at her sister. "Okay."

"Okay, that's it? I expected more of a fight from you on it." Iz replied shocked.

"What do you want me to say? I'm scared. We both have the same security clearance, and the fact that you can't know makes me nervous. On top of that, I was talking to Ryan, he's on the Beijing, a couple of weeks ago and he was saying how their pulling in some of the best in certain fields. Why? This means spec ops or something top secret. So damn right I'm scared." By this point Kat was pacing around the hotel room showing more emotion than Iz was used to seeing from her, more emotion than Iz's sure that Kat has shown anyone other than her. With her face flushed and her breathing heavy, Kat sank down onto the bed with a heavy sigh. "Sorry. I'm okay now." Knowing that her sister was dealt with everything internally and didn't want to talk about it more, Iz turned off the lights and went to sleep.

0400

Kat was already awake when the alarm went off the next morning, she hadn't been able to sleep. Every time she did she was plagued by troublesome dreams. Sighing to herself she got out of bed and padded over to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and was shocked at how horrible she looked. _Well I'm never going to be able to convince people that I'm a respectable marine looking like this._ Quickly disrobing she got into the shower and turned the water as hot as she could manage. Letting the hot water beat down on her, she stood there and discovered that the tension was coming out of her shoulders and that she felt better. Quickly washing her long hair and then her body, she finished her shower. Retrieving her uniform from where she had placed it the night before, she dressed and efficiently braided her hair up into a bun. Looking at herself in the mirror, she decided that she was still a little pale looking and applied some basic makeup to make her look less haggard. Satisfied with her appearance she went into the room to wake Iz up only to find Iz dressed and ready to go. Noticing the faint traces of makeup on Kat's face, Iz elected to say nothing and just gestured at the clock.  
"0430. You ready to go? We have time to go grab something to eat."  
Nodding, Kat grabbed her bags and turned towards the door. Walking out of the hotel, the streets of Elysium were silent and still. Finding a 24/7 diner, they went in and had the owner make a quick meal to go and then continued on their way to the terminal. Noticing that Kat wasn't eating, Iz decided to comment "Kat, you have to eat. You know that your body requires a hell of a lot of food. Your body burns it all off."  
"I know. It just tastes like I'm eating cardboard."  
Iz went to retort but they had reached Docking Bay 75 and there were 2 Alliance marines were standing there waiting. Looking at her omni-tool, Kat saw that the time was just after 0450. Glancing at the marines she told them to give her a moment. Setting down her bags she turned to face her sister.  
"Well, thanks for walking with me."  
"Of course, like I'm going to let you walk here by yourself. You could've been mugged." Iz said with a grin. Her comment had the desired effect too, Kat burst out laughing  
"Of course, I can't take care of myself from a mugger. Thank god you were there."  
Quickly crossing the distance between them Kat tossed her arms around her sister, Iz quickly replicated before gently pushing her away and joking  
"Stop, you're embarrassing." Smiling at her sister, Kat nonetheless picked up her bags and turned to leave.

"Be careful Katherine." Iz added seriously.

Turning Kat replied "You too. Stay safe."

With a scoff Iz replied, "I'm on Elysium, what's the worst that can happen?"


	5. Silence

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

 **Edit: I put up these stories just to see if people were interested! Now that at least a few are I'm fixing the format of them! When I wrote them they weren't designed to go online! Thanks to all who read these before I fixed them!**

The silence was deafening, Kat thought while walking through the Beijing. She had been on her fair share of different ships, each with their own personalities. However, she had never been on a ship quite as solemn as the Beijing. Walking past the infiltrator that was her bunk mate, Kat smiled at her but all the infiltrator did was glare at her. Seeing this, a soldier in the bunk next to her waved her over.  
"Hey don't worry about her. Everyone's on edge, not everyone is a complete bitch though. My name is Heather."

"Katherine" Kat gratefully replied happy that someone was going to talk to her. "Why's everyone so tense?" Kat asked Heather.  
"Wait, you don't know?" Heather replied shock evident all over her face. More confused than ever Kat just shook her head before elaborating.  
"No, I got a call a couple of nights ago saying that I was needed on this ship for their next mission and to report to the docking bay the next morning. And ever since I got here, no one will speak to me. The Captain just glanced at me and said to 'Stay out of everyone's way. You'll get briefed when we get there.' I don't even know where there is…"

"So you're the reason we stopped in Elysium. I heard we were there to pick up a Sentinel class. Well I'll fill you in! So we're going to Akuze, it's a planet on the outskirts of Alliance space. Apparently we're trying to get a colony start there but we lost all contact with the research team. The brass is sending us in to see what's going on."

"Do you know why they wanted me? A sentinel? I'm the only biotic on the ship and I feel like everyone can tell just by looking at me."

"Not by looking at you, word gets around of a biotic due to how you need more food than everyone else, and you're the only newbie on the ship. Put two and two together.." Heather trailed off before continuing "But as to why you're here. No clue, I guess maybe since we don't know what's going on they wanted to have a biotic around? Also, I was curious so I snooped. Hacked your record. Not only are you a damn good biotic, your tech scores are off the charts. Maybe they figured you'd fit in well with the tech people here and they'd feel less like they have to baby you. Do you shoot?"

"Yeah, my sister's a vanguard so we tend to practice shooting a lot. I'm decent with pistols and SMGs but my weapon of choice is my sniper rifle."

"No shit? A sentinel with a sniper rifle? What kind?"

"Yeah, everyone says that if I hadn't been so good with biotics I'd be a natural infiltrator. And the Viper's my favorite." Kat replied still laughing at Heather's shocked face.

"We should get along just fine, I'm partial to the Mantis myself. Do you want to grab some food and then talk tech?"

"Sure! Can you show me your base code for tactical cloak? I've been working on it on my own but people won't generally help me because they tell me that a Sentinel has no need for cloaking. As if I didn't know that. I already knew I was a bad sentinel anyways. I'm supposed to be one who tosses up Tech Armor and charges into battle. Not really my kind of thing."

"Well screw them. You do you, that's what I say. Let's go. I have a feeling that we've got a lot to talk about. Also, real quick. You might want to tell your sister that we're going to go out of range when we get there and that she should hear back from you in a week. That's when the brass wants the initial report."

"I will thanks."

"Hey girl, I can't tell you what's going on but it shouldn't be too bad! Anyways, I've made a friend so don't worry. Also, I'm going to go out of comm range tomorrow. But we have to give initial reports a week from now so I'll talk to you then! – Kat"

Elysium:

"With all due respect, Sir. I don't give a shit whether they're only 24 hours overdue. That's my sister we're talking about. I don't even know where she is." Iz argued with Lt. Commander Anderson.

"I know Chief, I don't like it either. But we have to give them a little more time before we commit resources to a rescue." He calmly replied.

"Can't you at least tell me where she is?"

Commander Anderson just looked at the woman standing in front of him. While there were obvious differences in personalities and appearances, there was something so similar between the two sisters, stubbornness came to mind at the moment. Watching Iz pace back and forth, just like she'd been doing for the last 6 hours since she threatened her way to him and he couldn't tell her anything, he decided to take pity on the poor woman in front of him. "Chief, your sister is on Akuze."

Shocked that he actually said something, Iz stopped looking at where she was and walked into a table. Righting herself and trying to regain some dignity she replied respectfully, "Akuze, sir? I've never heard of it."

"It's in the beginning of colonization but we lost contact with them a couple of weeks ago and sent a ship to investigate."

"Their preliminary data was due" pausing to check his omni tool, "24 hours and 16 minutes ago sir. The Beijing has reported no contact from the ground team."

"Can't we at least send a ship to be near the system in case?"

Deciding that he'd only be sending the ship a couple of hours earlier than he intended, he acquiesced to her request. "Alright, let's send a ship." Then continuing before she could cut him off "Yes, you may go. I know that you would figure out a way anyways, but you have to follow orders. Is that understood?"

Snapping to attention, Iz replied "Sir, yes Sir"

Smiling a bit, Anderson replied "Well then, let's go see what's going on."

Iz was pacing as they went through the relay but as soon as she was notified that they were in contact with the Beijing she turned and ran straight up to the CIC. As soon as she arrived Commander Anderson started the debrief.

"Okay, what's going on?"

"Sir, we didn't want to send in a bunch of marines onto the planet. You know how most of the colonies are, they aren't generally too fond of the Alliance. In case it was just them trying to stand on their own we sent in one unit, 50 marines and then decided on radio silence for a couple of days in case there was something wrong that required stealth. When they were first overdue we decided to wait for 24 hours in order to give them more time. However, they have missed their check in time by 26 hours and 12 minutes. We were about to send a team to investigate when you arrived."

Interjecting Iz told Commander Anderson, "I'm going to be on that rescue team."

The Captain of the Beijing replied "We could use any extra bodies, we're a smaller ship. We're low on personnel without 50 of our people."

Thinking it over, Commander Anderson agreed, "Chief, get over on that ship and go find our people."

Snapping to attention and saluting him she replied "Aye aye Commander." She then pivoted and ran to grab her gear and get to the Beijing.

After landing on the ground, Iz took in her surroundings. Shaking her head as to why anyone would want to colonize this place, she started moving with the rest of the unit towards where the settlement was. Turning the corner, everyone stopped and stared at the carnage in front of them. The colony was covered in blood and dead bodies. Wanting to run ahead but forcing herself to follow protocol she contacted Commander Anderson

"Sir, we've got a lot of dead bodies. Lots of blood. Too much to have come just from these colonists."

Slowly making their way forward the squad came across what looked like a body of an animal, the animal looked like a huge worm and Iz recognized it from the extranet, swallowing her fear, she quickly radioed Anderson.

"Commander Anderson."

"Report Chief."

"Sir, we've come across the body of an animal. I think, I think it's a thresher maw sir."

"Shit, that unit wasn't prepared for thresher maws. Are there more of them?"

"Checking it out now sir." Quickly moving through the rest of the colony she continued to update.

"Sir, we've seen 2 of these animals so far. And…" Trailing off she saw what looked to be a thresher maw, just the insides.

"Chief?"

"Sir, we've come across another one, but instead of being riddled with bullets, this one looked to have been exploded from the inside. I would guarantee that this is biotic work right here."

"Is your sister powerful enough to do something like that?"

"Honestly sir, I have no idea. I have no clue how much energy or power that would require. I can only hazard that it would be a lot." Iz went to continue but was quickly cut off by one of the marines,

"Ma'am, I think that there is a body in the middle of that gore." Turning to look, Iz ran over to the middle of where the thresher maw had been. Sure enough, in the middle of the carnage lay a body. The body was unrecognizable, it was covered in blood and guts and other chunks of the thresher maw. Running to the body, Iz pulled off the helmet and looked down into the face of her sister. She just sat there and stared down into the face so similar to her own. In a daze she almost didn't hear the voice of the medic who checked Kat's pulse.

"Chief!" Glancing at the Corporal kneeling in front of her she tuned into what he was saying. "Chief, she's alive! Her pulse is sporadic and very faint, but it's there. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say she dropped into some sort of coma. We need to get her back to the Beijing!"

Not wanting to waste anytime Iz picked up Kat and radioed Anderson,

"Sir, she's alive. I'm not sure how but she's alive! I'm heading back to the extraction zone. I'll have the rest of the squad check for other survivors."

"Roger that Chief, we'll have a medical team standing by."

"Acknowledged. Shepard out." Quickly contacting the rest of the unit, Iz ordered them to search for any other survivors or information before leaving the planet with her dying sister in her arms.

Kat awoke to the sound of her sister arguing with the nurse in the room. Iz's face was full of frustration and Iz looked like she was going to deck the nurse.

"What do you mean you don't know what's wrong with her? She's been here for 3 days and still hasn't woken up?!"

"I'm sorry Chief, she was excessively malnourished and dehydrated. I'm honestly not sure how she was still alive when she was brought in. It'll take time for her body to absorb the nutrients that we're giving her. Hopefully then she'll wake up."

"Hopefully?!"

Seeing that her sister was about to freak out on the poor nurse, she quickly interjected.

"Gosh Iz, is there really a need to harass the poor lady?" Quickly spinning around she darted to Kat's side exclaiming "You're up!"

"Really? I had no idea." Kat snipped back jokingly looking at herself as if looking to see if she were really awake.

"Smart ass. How are you feeling?"

"Like I was hit by a bus, that was carrying only Krogan. What happened?"

"Well, we were hoping you could tell us. Actually let me let Commander Anderson in, he wants to know too."

"Chief, how are you doing?" Anderson asked Kat looking concerned as he came into the room.

"I'm okay sir. A little tired but I'm okay."

"I'm glad to hear that. I'm sorry about this but can you tell me what happened?"

Taking a deep breathe, Kat went on to explain that they landed on Akuze only to find all of the colonists gone. They made camp and began to search for clues that might lead to what happened to the colonists. They tried to make contact with the Beijing but were met with silence. The next night after searching the camp and coming up empty, they began to look for any sort of communication jammer. That night Kat awoke to screams and gunfire. Running outside she saw multiple thresher maws, something she only knew about because of the extranet, attacking the colony and the marines camping there. They managed to kill all of them but when they got to the last maw, they numbered about 4 and then it was just her.

"How did you kill that last maw then? I saw it, it looked like it exploded or something." Iz asked her sister.

"Well I was tired, we had been fighting for hours and I was desperate. So I decided to try something a little new with my biotics, I honestly wasn't sure if it would work or how much power it would take. I created a little ball of biotic power, like a small barrier, inside the maw and then expanded it until the maw exploded." Kat trailed off after this.

"I don't really remember much after that anyways. What happened to me?"

At this point Anderson spoke up "Well, knowing when you were attacked, you've been in a coma for about a week and a half at this point. We talked to some asari doctors and they're pretty sure that you used up so much energy doing whatever it is that you did, that you're body shut itself down in order to conserve energy and that somehow, you're biotic abilities kept you alive. They said that another day or so and you would've died."

"And the rest of my unit? Were there any survivors?" Kat asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry Chief, we didn't find any other survivors." Anderson sadly replied.

"But, Heather was down there with me. You've would've liked her so much Iz." Kat said tears forming in her eyes looking at her sister.

"I'll give you two some time." Anderson said as he left the room.

"Are you okay?" Iz asked her sister.

"No, but, I. I need to process it on my own. And I need something else to talk about right now. Like how did you get yourself to Akuze?" Kat questioned.

"Ummm, well. A few days after you left your last message, batarians attacked Elysium."

"Wait what?!" Kat exclaimed.

"Yeah, well. Me and a couple of other marines on leave were able to organize a resistance and hold off the batarians until back up arrived. But, everyone keeps saying that I did this amazing job, which I really didn't. I was just helping, but they're calling what happened the Skyllian Blitz and how I'm the hero of it.. There are rumors of me getting the Star of Terra." Iz finished looking very sheepish at the end.

Kat just stared at Iz. Finally getting tired of the staring Iz asked in a snarky tone "What?"

"The Star of Terra? The War Hero of the Skyllian Blitz? Oh my god. You'll be famous."

"I know. It's terrible. I hate people, like hell I want to have to sit through ceremonies and be stopped on the street."

At that comment and the look of utter despair on Iz's face, Kat burst out laughing.

"Ha ha, laugh it up fuzzball. Let's see if we can try to get you out of here."

Although it took some convincing from both Iz, Kat and Commander Anderson, the staff finally released Kat. She was under orders to take it easy and to ease herself back into shape due to her body's malnourishment. Kat of course disregarded that comment and about a month later, Kat was almost back to fighting shape when both her omni tool beeped with an incoming urgent message. Dropping from the plank that she was currently in, she walked over to her computer in order to check the message. Pulling up the message from Alliance Training Command, she temporarily stopped breathing at what the message contained.

'Katherine Alice Shepard,

You have received a recommendation for acceptance into the Interplanetary Combative Training Program. Based upon this recommendation and a review of your service record, we have decided to offer you a spot in the ICT program. Please respond with your decision within one standard week. Thank you and congratulations.

Respectfully,

Alliance Training Command'

She just sat there and stared, not even moving when her sister bursts into the apartment yelling and screaming. Realizing that Kat wasn't paying attention to her, Iz goes over and reads the message over her shoulder. She finally tunes in when Iz shoves her omni tool with a message in front of Kat's eyes. Quickly reading the message in front of her face, Kat sees that it's the exact same email that she received but addressed to Iz instead. Turning around to face her sister, Kat and Iz just look at each other with a smile before saying together, "I guess we're going to Rio."


	6. I Don't Want To Know

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

 **Edit: I put up these stories just to see if people were interested! Now that at least a few are I'm fixing the format of them! When I wrote them they weren't designed to go online! Thanks to all who read these before I fixed them!**

Iz walked up to Docking Bay 75 curious as to why her new assignment told her to report to this location at 1400. When she arrived, she was surprised to see heavy security guarding the doors and no visibility into the Docking Bay. Obviously whatever was going on was very sensitive. Walking up to the Marines standing guard, she was told to wait for Captain Anderson to come and get her. _Well this is definitely strange. Anderson's here._ She only had to wait for a few minutes before Captain Anderson walked out. Snapping to attention and saluting him, Anderson just chuckled out an "at ease Commander." Then with a puzzled face, he asked Iz where Kat was. Just as confused, Iz told Anderson that Kat had gotten her orders to go back to the Kilimanjaro. Iz was even more confused, and slightly amused, when Anderson threw his hands up in the air and started muttering about incompetent fools, Iz spoke up. "Sir, was my sister supposed to be here too?"

"Yes Commander, she was. I asked for both of the Shepards. That would explain why I got some other Sentinel yesterday with orders to the ship. Well I might as well explain to you what's going on and then I'll go and work on getting your sister here."

"We've never been stationed together. Why now, Sir?"

"Because I need the best and you two are the best." Anderson replied simply.

Anderson showed her the Normandy, explained that it is a mixture of Turian and Human design and that both races collaborated on this project. It also has a Tantalus drive core which, Iz wasn't entirely sure because it was a lot of tech mumbo jumbo, essentially makes the Normandy invisible to radar scans. The Normandy is also a top secret frigate designed for stealth recon. Anderson told Iz that she was to be the XO on the Normandy and showed Iz to her quarters before telling her to go home to pack up her stuff. He also told Iz that until Kat was officially assigned to the Normandy, Iz wasn't to tell her anything about her new assignment.

Iz got back to the hotel room that she was sharing with Kat until they checked into their new assignments to find Kat intensely reading an email.

"What's up? Why do you look so serious?" Iz asked plopping down onto the bed.

"I've just received another email telling me to not check into the Kilimanjaro yet, something about a possible new assignment." Kat said rereading the email as if it was going to give her new information.

"Ahh, well that's cool." Iz said nonchalantly trying to feign knowledge of what was going on. Spinning around in the chair Kat sent a piercing stare in the direction of her sister.

"You know what's going on." Kat accused.

"No…" Iz trailed off at Kat's glare. "Okay, yes. But I can't tell you. I'm under orders. By someone that I don't want to piss off." Iz pleaded with her sister.

Kat smirked "That means Anderson. That I can work with."

"Wait what are you doing?" Iz called out as Kat turned back to her computer typing away. Realizing that she didn't want to know. Iz proceeded to pack up her things and then laid in bed listening to music.

A few hours later Iz awoke from her nap to Kat poking her.

"What?" Iz snapped. "I was sleeping."

"Yeah, well I figured you'd want to know that Anderson got my assignment switched. I'm on the Normandy with you. I should be getting an email soon." Kat informed Iz.

"Wait, how the hell did you know that it was the Normandy?!" Iz asked surprised.

Kat just grinned at Iz who sighed. _Honestly, I don't know why I'm surprised anymore._ Kat's omni tool then beeped "Ah right on schedule. I'm reporting to Anderson at 0800 tomorrow morning. But he does say that we'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon so we need to have everything we'll need by then."

The next morning Kat showed up to Docking Bay 75 with all of her stuff awaiting Captain Anderson. When he arrived she just said hello. He just smiles at the insolence the girl he considers like a daughter to him, he's also not surprised to see her show up in civilian clothes. Apparently formal uniforms was too much to ask of her today. He then proceeds to tell her that she's being reassigned to a prototype frigate co-designed by turians and humans with aspects from each race. Interrupting him she informs him that she knows about the Normandy already and all the technical aspects of it. Shaking his head at her, he doesn't even bother asking how she got the information.

"How hard was it for you to hack the system? You do realize that this is probably some of the most classified information we have right."

"I mean. No, I just thought that it was like some of our spec ops stuff."

"No. This is way above that security level. How long did it take you to hack the system?"

"A couple of hours?.?." Kat half asked. Upon seeing the look on Anderson's face she quickly interjected "You should be happy though, I mean most of the spec ops stuff, even our N7 missions, takes me like 10 minutes max. A couple of hours is pretty good for the Alliance. You also forget, I know our security protocols so it's way easier for me to hack the system than someone not from the Alliance."

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and get settled. Just find somewhere to sleep. I don't care where, it's your choice other than my room and your sister's room. She's the XO, and well they originally didn't give you to me so they sent another sentinel who has the job I intended for you. So I'll figure out something. Or you figure out something. We'll talk about that later though, so go ahead. I know you want to check out the drive core." Anderson finished with a small smile on her face.

Tossing off a smart ass salute and with a quick raise of her eyebrows, Kat grabbed her stuff and headed onboard.

After acquainting herself with the rest of the ship, Kat tossed her stuff in the corner of the cargo hold, and after deciding that changing into uniform would be a waste of her time, she stayed in civilian clothes and headed down to the drive core. Upon walking into the empty engine room, Kat found herself stopping and just staring at the core. It was huge but even at a quick glance and the outputs Kat could tell it was outputting tremendous amounts of power. She went over to a console where she could run some diagnostics and see what she was working with. Seeing a section that she could probably improve, she quickly opened up a panel on the starboard side of the ship and began to work.

However, maybe 10 minutes later Kat smacked her head when she heard a "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Turning around Kat saw a man about her age with dark brown hair and chocolate colored eyes. Obviously a marine Kat thought seeing the outline of muscles through his form fitting uniform. She was stopped from her assessment of the man when he spoke again. "I won't ask again, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Remembering that she was in civilian clothes and she knew that she outranked everyone on this ship except Anderson, and her sister (with whom she shared the same rank). Kat decided to play around a bit.

"Yeah, could you be a doll and read me the top diagnostic over there please?" She said with a smile pointing to a panel on the other side of engineering.

Obviously not liking what he considered insubordination, the man replied "No I will not. Now if you don't tell me who you are I'm going to have resort to higher forms of authority."

With mock exaggeration Kat dramatically replied "Ohh nooo. Not higher forms of authority!"

Clearly at the end of his patience the marine radioed "Commander Shepard, this is Lt. Alenko. I'm down in engineering and there is a civilian down here who won't identify or cooperate."

Hearing that this Lt. Alenko was contacting her sister, she called out to him. "Ohh can you also tell her Kitty Kat says hi?!"

Frustrated the marine snaps back, "No I will not tell her Kitty Kat says hi."

Iz, upon hearing the first bit of information starting running towards the stairs, but upon the second statement coming through the radio she held back a laugh now knowing that said civilian is actually Kat. "I'm on my way Lt. Alenko, hold tight."

Kat proceeded to have a stare down contest with the marine. But she broke eye contact when Iz walked into engineering. "Ahh perfect" she called out "Can you tell Lt. Alenko to please read the top diagnostic over on that panel?"

Rolling her eyes at her sister she turned to Alenko "Please just read it."

Clearly confused Lt. Alenko read the diagnostic to Kat who proceeded to tinker a bit more before closing the panel and walking over to the main console.

"Ahh perfect. Increased output by 2.1%, a bit less than I was hoping for but, it'll do."

Wanting answers Lt. Alenko turns to Iz "With all due respect ma'am. Who is she and why aren't we kicking her off the ship?"

Sighing Iz turns to Kat, "You know this would've all turned out easier if you just told him who you are."

Lt. Alenko quickly interjects "Wait, you know her?"

Kat steps up, "Of course she does. Lt. Alenko, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Commander Shepard."

Looking at Kat as if she was delusional, he points at Iz going "No that's Commander Shepard."

Raising her eyebrows Kat calmly replies. "Yes that is Commander Isabelle Shepard. I am Commander Katherine Shepard."


	7. I'm Not Stupid

**Disclaimer: I do not, sadly, own any part of Mass Effect. Kat, Iz and my later OC characters I'll mention are mine.**

 **Edit: I put up these stories just to see if people were interested! Now that at least a few are I'm fixing the format of them! When I wrote them they weren't designed to go online! Thanks to all who read these before I fixed them!**

Jaw agape, the marine just stared at Kat. Deciding to take pity on the poor marine Iz stepped in.

"Lt. Alenko, as my sister so delicately put things. She is also Commander Shepard."

Finally finding his voice he replied. "You're practically a myth."

Looking at him in confusion Kat responded "What do you mean?"

He attempted to clarify "Your sister is a war hero. Her face has been all over billboards and documentaries since the Skyllian Blitz. Her skills as a vanguard are practically legendary, as is how friendly she is to everyone. Everyone wants to talk about her. You on the other hand, are the survivor of Akuze, an event most people like to pretend never happened. Rumor also has it that you're the most powerful human biotic, that combined with the fact that you're never seen on camera lends to the belief that you don't exist. Like a ghost."

With a small smile Kat asked the marine a simple question "If that's so, then how do you know I exist?"

"The ATE. There's a Commander Shepard who has the top score. Your sister is well known. As is her limited technical ability. But, if you don't mind me asking ma'am. What is your job here then?"

"Good question, I'm not quite sure. I'll probably end up technically being the head of engineering or something. Like a Chief Engineering Officer or something. We used to call them Chengs."

Before Kat could continue, Captain Anderson called over the intercom system for a meeting of the entire crew in the CIC. Heading upstairs, the three marines were the last to walk in. From that point Captain Anderson introduced Iz as the XO and Kat as the Chief Engineering Officer (who was also the third in command). They were then dismissed to finalize anything before departure.

Walking away from the CIC with her sister, Iz decided to berate Kat.

"You know, you shouldn't have played with him."

Rolling her eyes Kat responded "Yeah yeah, but it was funny. I mean his face when he said Kitty Kat?! Priceless."

"Will you never stop using that?"

"Never. It will never grow old."

"More like you'll never grow old. Where are you sleeping?" Iz immediately continued speaking upon seeing Kat open her mouth "And no, you can't sleep with me and have a sleepover.."

Kat dramatically sighed "Such a spoilsport. My stuff is in the Cargo Hold. For the time being that'll work." Seeing that Iz was going to lecture her, Kat decided to not even let her start. "It's fine. Don't worry. You know the capsules don't work for me after," she paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "Akuze. And I don't do well in the Crew Quarters. It's still a pretty tight space and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in a panic and I need space."

Iz looked even more concerned at that admission "Why haven't you ever told me this?"

"It's not consistent. It's usually just when I get stressed. Don't worry about it. I've done this on every ship since,..., it. Also, it's nice not to wake everyone at night when I wake up hungry!" Kat joked trying to calm her sister. Recognizing that Kat had shared more about how she's been dealing with the incident ever, Iz let it go.

"Okay, well hurry up and get changed. The Turian spectre, which I'm just going to assume that you know about somehow, is due to arrive any minute and then we'll be leaving."

"Yes, for the 'shakedown run.'" Kat replied with quotations. "I mean, if people actually believe that then the best and brightest really need to be renamed to.."

"Okay, we don't need to hear what it needs to be renamed." Iz interrupted with a frown. "But you're right. It's obviously not what they're saying. But for now, we keep to ourselves. Now go change!"

"Aye aye Madam Executive Officer." Kat replied with a smirk and a smart ass salute. Laughing to herself, Iz went to go unpack her room before they jumped through the mass relay.


End file.
